The
world's need for a big-budget feature version of Starsky and Hutch ranks somewhere below that of a cure for cancer or
a clean-burning energy source. But through some combination of a
comparatively low up-front investment and a comparatively high short-term
profit potential, the big-screen Starsky
& Hutch" has managed to arrive first, with Ben Stiller and the
earnest, righteous former, Owen Wilson as the relaxed, easygoing latter, and
the much-loved Gran Torino as itself.

For
the benefit of those who are too young to remember it—that is, the bulk of
the audience at whom this PG-13 movie is aimed—Starsky
and Hutch was a cop-buddy show which ran from 1975 to 1979 on ABC.

Focusing
on fights and chases, and on the hip friendship of the title characters, it
was enormously popular, and though it wasn't intended as an outright comedy,
it had a lasting effect on the "action-comedy" genre.

I
was in eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th grades when it was on, and while I
remember it being the regular talk of my classmates, I don't think I ever
watched a whole episode at the time. So I can't say how true to the spirit
of the show the film is. I can say that it couldn't be a much more imbecilic
movie, of course, but I'd be lying if I said that none of it made me laugh.
And in any case, it’s vastly better than 2002’s abysmal I
Spy, another vintage-TV knockoff starring Wilson.

Stiller,
with his wound-up intensity, and Wilson, with his high-pitched, wheedling
effusiveness, are both one-of-a-kind performers, and though the script gives
them woefully little to work with, they have an agreeable rapport.

A
large and goofy cast supports them—Snoop Dogg is somnolently deadpan and
pretty funny as streetwise informant Huggy Bear, Fred Williamson is a
welcome presence as gruff Captain Doby, and Vince Vaughn is hilarious as the
nettled, kvetching drug-lord villain. Juliette Lewis seems very much of the
period as his groovy-chick mistress, and while they have less onscreen
charisma, Amy Smart and Carmen Electra are similarly convincing as the
cheerleaders which our heroes romance.

Jason
Bateman, Chris Penn, Patton Oswalt and Richard Edson liven things up in
smaller roles, as do a couple of surprise cameos.

Make
no mistake, Starsky & Hutch is
just a glossy, facetious time-killer, and how painful you'll find the death
of that time depends on two questions: First, can you tolerate Stiller and
Wilson? Second, how fond are you of '70s kitsch? Starsky
& Hutch seems to have been made, above all, for the sake of the
self-conscious deployment of '70s pop music, clothes, hairstyles, cars.

It
should also be noted that the young director, Todd Phillips (Old
School), really captures the drably functional look, and the stiff
narrative rhythm, of old-school episodic TV. For whatever that may be worth.

The
DVD—The extras are as
inconsequential as the movie—audio commentaries by Stiller, Wilson and the
director; a send-up of a “Making of” documentary, some deleted scenes, a
gag reel and a few other minor do-dads.In short, this isn’t a disc you buy for the bells and whistles.

The
PG-13 rating is lenient. The movie is probably a little risque for younger
kids.